also give my body and life and soul for my sheep, my body to the tower
and my life to the sword, or fire, or the wine-press, where it will be
pressed out of the flesh as the blood of Christ on the cross. I am a
beginner of baptism and the bread of the Lord, along with my chosen
brethren, Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz. Therefore, the Pope with all
his followers is a thief and a murderer; in like manner, Luther with
all his followers is a thief and a murderer; Zwingli also and Leo Judae
with all their followers are thieves and murderers, until they make
this same confession also. I have asked my gracious Lords of Zurich,
and still ask them, for leave to dispute with Ulrich Zwingli and Leo
Judae; I may not obtain it, but yet I await the hour, which my Heavenly
Father has ordained therefor."

This hour came on the 17th of January, 1525. Bullinger, who was
personally present, gives a description, but only a brief one, of the
event. The Great Council, the scholars and the clergy were there; Manz,
Grebel, Blaurock, R[oe]ubli, Ludwig Haetzer, of whose work against
images we have before spoken, were the chief antagonists of Zwingli.
The latter began with an acknowledgment, that for some years he had
himself been of the opinion, that it were better to postpone the
baptism of infants to a more advanced age, but, after mature
reflection, had reached a different conviction, which he thought
sustained by the true sense of the Holy Scriptures, and then he
unfolded this in an extended conversation with the Anabaptists. Whoever
desires a more thorough knowledge of his views on this point will find
them in his work on "Baptism, Re-baptism and Infant Baptism."[6] His
main arguments for the latter were the following: Baptism is the
external sign of admission into the society of Christians. To have
received it once is sufficient. Adults were baptised by the Apostles,
because they who first joined the church were of full age. The Holy
Scriptures contain indeed no example of infant-baptism; but then just
as little can be proven from them, that it was not practised. Mention
of it occurs in the very oldest church-fathers. It took the place of
circumcision, which had been commanded in the Old Testament, and
strengthened the obligations of Christian parents, whilst it became to
the children themselves a pledge and perpetual token of fidelity to Him
who lovingly bade little children even to be brought to Him.

Light triumphed over darkness, scien